March Merkin

For anyone not familiar with the permit fishing tournament scene in Key West, the Merkin is one of three major events held throughout the year. It’s held on the second week of March, and the best permit anglers travel from all over the world to fish with the best permit guides here in the Keys for this competitive three day tournament. It’s a 25 angler field, and my good friend Steve Hoovler and I are honored to participate.

Steve came down a few days early to allow us some time to pre-fish. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were able to find some good fishing. We spread our fishing out, trying to get as much feedback as we could to create a solid game plan for day one of the tournament. We found four areas that had enough flow where we thought we could get the job done.

Day one went well. The fish from our first spot did not show up, so we transitioned to another flat where we had been seeing a good flow of permit. Steve chipped away at a few shots, having one really close call on a group of four or five fish. I bounced around to a few flats looking for something that felt right to end the day. We settled into another flat that i’ve had good luck on in the past. We missed one shot, and then had a fish slide in front of the boat. Steve placed a brilliant cast down, the fish tailed and pinned the fly to the grass. Steve took a long strip and came tight. We landed the fish in fifteen minutes and were on the board! Two other fish were caught that day, so after day one we were sitting in third place and felt confident we could catch another.

Day two was a bit cloudier. We stuck to our same rotation, unfortunately fewer fish showed up and shots were tougher in between clouds. Three additional fish were landed, pushing us into fourth place.

Day Three the wheels fell off for me, We checked a few new flats, not a fish to be seen. We checked our old flats, and the fish cycled out of them. We unfortunately couldn’t find any fish to throw at, and we came to the dock with our lone fish holding us in 6th place.

Congratulations to Captain Nick Labadie and Robert Dougherty for finishing strong and landing two fish on day three for the win!

Steve gets us on the board. This fish measured 66 cm to the fork.